Out to Canaan
Chapter One
A Tea and a Half
The indoor plants were among the first to venture outside and
breathe the fresh, cold air of Mitford's early spring.
Eager for a dapple of sunlight, starved for the revival of mountain
breezes, dozens of begonias and ferns, Easter lilies and Wandering
Jews were set out, pot-bound and listless, on porches throughout the
village.
As the temperature soared into the low fifties, Winnie Ivey
thumped three begonias, a sullen gloxinia, and a Boston fern onto
the back steps of the house on Lilac Road, where she was now living.
Remembering the shamrock, which was covered with aphids, she
fetched it from the kitchen and set it on the railing.
"There!" she said, collecting a lungful of the sharp, pure air. "That
ought to fix th' lot of you."
When she opened the back door the following morning, she was
stricken at the sight. The carefully wintered plants had been turned
to mush by a stark raving freeze and minor snow that also wrenched
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